DALE JARRETT
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET BACK BEHIND THE WHEEL AFTER WHAT'S HAPPENED THE LAST MONTH OR SO?
"It feels great. It seems like the end of the season was a long time ago. A lot of things have happened in that period of time, but it's nice. It was nice to have the time at home with Kelley and the kids, but it's really good to be back at what I enjoy doing. It's hard to tell if we're good or if we're not good because this is something new for everybody with the new shock and spring rules but the cars drive a lot better and for us old guys I guess that's good."
HOW DID YOU APPROACH TODAY BECAUSE YOU SET THE FASTEST SPEED EARLY IN THE DAY BUT IT WAS WITH THE OLD SHOCK AND SPRING SETUP, RIGHT?
"We basically came and ran the fast laps that we ran were on last year's shocks and springs -- just like we finished the race here last year. We had run a number of laps by ourselves in practice last year, so we knew what that car would do then, so we kind of wanted to see how this body was, if it was better and if we did a better job. We knew what the wind tunnel told us, but we wanted to see exactly where we were, so that's why we did that and got those laps. Once we saw what we wanted to there, then it was time to get with what's gonna happen now and from there it was just making changes. There's not a lot you can do and you're gonna have to get creative in some new areas now and that's what we tried to do. We made some gains, we picked the car up a little bit, but as far as knowing if that's good or bad versus other cars, you can change these cars two and three-tenths a second just by adding a little bit of tape to 'em, so we're pretty much with race tape and I think some of the other guys had qualifying stuff, so we should be OK."
CAN YOU TELL A DIFFERENCE WITH THE 2000 TAURUS AFTER JUST ONE DAY?
"It's hard to tell here at Talladega because handling isn't the biggest thing here, but just by what we can tell, not only by what I could feel out there but as Todd and I talked about what they've seen in the wind tunnel, we have a better balanced car than what we had so that's gonna help everybody out. Obviously, certain teams figured things out to overcome the lack of front downforce that we had with the '99 Taurus, but it looks like maybe everybody is gonna get some help here -- that we do have a better balanced race car which will make it easier to adjust on. I think we have a nice car that is gonna be able to compete. At Daytona and Talladega, even though we won with the Taurus at both of those places, that wasn't the strong suit for it because it had a lot of drag. It looks like with the 2000 Taurus that maybe we've gotten some of that out of it and haven't given up a lot in the downforce package, so it looks like we've got a pretty good car to work with."
RICKY RUDD
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO FINALLY DRIVE THIS CAR FULL TIME?
"It went good. This is the second time we've tested together. We had two days down in Lakeland, Florida that we tested together so this is actually the third day of a test and I really like what I see. I see everybody getting along good. I see the chemistry blending good. We had quite a few of our guys who came over and went to work and it's not a case where our guys did it this way and there guys did it that way, it's kind of a nice little merger and the cars are running good. We ran good at Lakeland and we came here and we're running well here."
CAN YOU TELL ANY DIFFERENCE WITH THE 2000 TAURUS YET?
"I think what you're up against is that we've got these cars basically on race setup right now with the shock issue and the spring issue. With the rules being what they are everybody is pretty much equal and to sit here and say this Taurus is better than last years, it would be hard to do that because everybody is two to three seconds a lap slower than what they're normally used to running here so the cars feel really good. Even in race conditions with the new rules it's gonna be quite a bit different. I don't think there will be anybody here complaining about their car not driving well -- Ford, Chevy, whatever -- with these new shock rules and spring rules."
DO YOU SHARE THE ENTHUSIASM YOUR CREW OBVIOUSLY DOES ABOUT THIS SEASON?
"I just feel really honored and thrilled to have an opportunity like I've got. I can't take any credit, those guys are in the shops and working a lot of hours. They're working on Sundays and they're putting in the time it takes and we're starting to see some of the results. You can tell that their hearts are in it, they're not here to punch a clock and pick up a paycheck they're here to win a race and want to win races. I've been around a lot of different groups during the years and it's just nice to be around a group that's so committed to wanting to do well."